Dinmukhamed Kunayev

Dinmukhamed Akhmetuly Kunayev (12 January 1912-22 August 1993) was First Secretary of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan from 19 January 1960 to 26 December 1962, succeeding Nikolay Belyayev and preceding Ismail Yusupov, and again from 7 December 1964 to 16 December 1986, succeeding Yusupov and preceding Gennady Kolbin.

Biography
Dinmukhamed Kunayev was born in Almaty, Russian Empire into a middle-income family of Kazakhs, and he worked as a mine engineer before joining the CPSU in order to become chief engineer of the Pribalkhashatroi mine. From 1942 to 1952, he served as deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Kazakh SSR, and he served as Chairman from 1955 to 1960. Kunayev became good friends with Leonid Brezhnev, which allowed for him to rise in the party ranks and to lead the Communist Party of Kazakhstan from 1960 to 1962 and from 1964 to 1986. During his long rule, Kazakhs ran Kazakhstan. His loyalty to Brezhnev led to Mikhail Gorbachev replacing him as Kazakh Communist Party leader, with foreigner Gennady Kolbin being appointed to that office. This led to the Jeltoqsan uprising, which resuled in the massacre of 200 civilians. Kunayev spent the last year of his life in charitable activity, and he died in 1993.